Pearl Riverkeeper spent an awesome day spent on the Middle Pearl yesterday helping Fish & Wildlife Service with their Juvenile Sturgeon population study. FWS is on their third year of tagging and tracking Pearl River juvenile Gulf sturgeons in order to study their population, movements and migration patterns. The Pearl River is designated "Critical Habitat" for this threatened species that migrates seasonally up and down the river. Gulf sturgeon move from the Gulf of Mexico into coastal rivers in early spring and spawning occurs in the upper reaches of these rivers. Dams such as the sills at Pools Bluff and Jackson Waterworks block this species' passage to its historical spawning habitats.

Packed house at the beautiful Smith Robertson Museum & Cultural Center for the One Lake Forum last night. Thank you to all of the community-minded, engaged citizens who came out to learn about the potential detrimental economic and environmental impacts of the One Lake project. We appreciate your heart-felt love for the Pearl River! #OneRiverNoLake

Citizen Science is in action at the Ross Barnett Reservoir!! Trainers from Global Water Watch came to MS this weekend to teach Pearl Riverkeeper volunteers about bacteriological water monitoring and watershed stewardship. So thankful for the training, expertise, guidance and laughs from Dr. Bill Deutsch and Sergio Ruiz-Cordova. And, as usual, our volunteers rock!! Thank you all! Stay tuned for more information about our summer water monitoring program designed to keep you informed about safe recreation on the Reservoir!

Our Pearl River cypress swamps contribute invaluable and irreplaceable ecological services to our local economy and communities. These wetlands soak up surface waters during heavy rains, reducing downstream flood peaks and lessoning the damage from flood waters. They provide habitat for an entire ecosystem and help sustain biodiversity. They retain and filter sediments and nutrients to increase water quality. They provide economic value in terms of eco-tourism activities such as boating, bird watching, hunting, fishing and hiking. They act as carbon sinks, providing long-term storage of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Destroying wetlands has a cascading, permanent detrimental effect on the health and welfare of a community. The One Lake project proposes the destruction of over 1,000 acres of Pearl River wetlands, robbing our future generations of a vital resource and permanently altering a river that belongs to all of us.

In 2015, the top 5 Pearl River Basin polluters dumped over 3 million pounds of toxic chemicals into our watershed. The vast majority of this toxic waste came in the form of nitrates from 3 poultry processing companies, Tyson Foods, Peco Foods and Sanderson Farms. Nitrate pollution has numerous "external costs" to the environment which are not paid for by the companies discharging this toxic waste. These external costs, borne by the taxpayer and the public in general, include:

In addition to the nitrate compounds dumped by the poultry processing industry, Georgia-Pacific and International Paper together contributed 443,800 pounds of toxic discharges to our watershed, including manganese compounds, methanol, nitrate compounds, ammonia, barium compounds and acetaldehyde. Georgia-Pacific paper plant in Monticello, MS dumped by far the largest amount of carcinogenic chemicals into the Pearl River watershed with a total value of 16,668 pounds.

This Pearl River Basin chemical discharge data was compiled from the EPA's 2015 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) National Analysis Report of chemical discharges to air, land and water. U.S. facilities must report their discharges of certain toxic chemicals annually to the EPA. For the most part, the discharge of these chemicals is legally authorized by each state through the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System. Mississippi and Louisiana Departments of Environmental Quality test their waterways, designate the waterway sections as "attaining their designated use" or as "impaired" and make Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) discharge determinations. The TMDL is then used as the basis for discharge permit authorizations.

"Since the creation of the TRI Program, the information collected and presented has provided a way for citizens to better understand possible sources of pollution in their communities. This better understanding can be the basis for actions, such as communications with facilities releasing chemicals to the environment and with regulatory authorities that have oversight responsibilities. This concept of citizen empowerment is summed up by the slogan, 'A Right to Know, A Basis to Act'." EPA.gov.

1. Skip the StrawStraws are one of the most commonly found items on beach cleanups and are basically just another waste of plastic. Just tell your waitress/bartender #nostrawplease. If you love to use a straw, get yourself a cool metal reusable version.

Pensacola Beach, FL, Photo by Pearl Riverkeeper

2. Go Foam FreeStyrofoam is a complete design fail in terms of sustainability. It is a petroleum-based, non-recylable, carcinogenic material that takes 500 years to fully degrade yet begins to fall apart in tiny pieces once it is trashed. Spend a few minutes fishing styrofoam pieces out of a river or sifting them out of the sand at the beach and I guarantee you will go #foamfree.​

3. Bring Your OwnDid you know that every single piece of plastic ever produced is still in existence? Or that it takes plastic 450 years to decompose?90% of the trash I remove from the Pearl River watershed is single-use plastic. There are over 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the ocean. In the US alone, 2.5 million single-use plastic bottles are used EVERY HOUR. Recycling is not the answer. Most plastic sent to recycling centers is downcycled into other products such as carpet and plastic lumber. Recycling cannot keep up with the amount of virgin plastic produced every day. Plastic containers leach hormone-mimicking chemicals into food and drink, especially when exposed to hot temperatures. Why are we using a non-renewable resource to make a disposable product that is meant for a few minutes of use but that basically last forever? Make the pledge to refuse single-use plastic bottles, bring your own reusable shopping bags, and #skipthestraw. Let's stop sending our precious resources straight to a hole in the ground!

1000 single-use plastic bottles collected from the banks of the Ross Barnett Reservoir and Pearl River, Photo by Pearl Riverkeeper

7. Fish ResponsiblyDiscarded fishing line routinely entangles and kills wildlife, imperils swimmers and gets caught in propellers, damaging outboard motors. Littered bait containers photo-degrade into tiny pieces that attract other toxins in the water and are often eaten by fish. Eating fish that has been dining on plastic particles will cause toxins to pass to you. This spring alone, there were 13,057 pieces of trash removed from the Reservoir Spillway area by 150 different volunteers. This amount of trash on our local waterway has a broad spectrum of impacts: loss of tourism/business revenue, impairment of Jackson's drinking water source, increased crime associated with areas of blight, habitat degradation for 7 federally listed species and the rest of the Pearl River Basin ecosystem including oyster hatcheries downstream, and loss of community pride to name a few. Our community deserves clean fishable, swimmable, drinkable water.

8. Clean Your WatershedVolunteer for the 1st annual Pearl River Clean Sweep, an epic river cleanup happening across 15 Mississippi counties, 2 Louisiana parishes and over 490 miles of beautiful river. Cleanup teams will be deployed along the Pearl River Watershed from its headwaters in Nanih Waiya, Mississippi, downriver through the Ross Barnett Reservoir, along the border of Mississippi and Louisiana, all the way to Pearlington on the Gulf Coast. For more information and to register, visit www.PearlRiverkeeper.com.

Copyright Mississippi Threads

9. Get InvolvedJoin the Take2Miss social media campaign by picking up litter in your community. The next time you are out jogging, walking, boating, biking, heading to work or school, just pick up 2 pieces of litter, snap a pic and post it to Instagram or Facebook using #Take2Miss. Clean communities and a clean watershed are everyone's responsibility!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContacts: Abby Braman, Pearl Riverkeeper, abbybraman@gmail.comMaia Raposo, Director of Communications & Marketing, Waterkeeper Alliance: mraposo@waterkeeper.org; 212.747.0622 ext. 116Abby Braman Named Pearl Riverkeeper: Newly Formed Environmental Group to Patrol and Protect the Pearl RiverMadison, MS (July 13, 2017) – The Waterkeeper Alliance Board of Directors has approved the Pearl Riverkeeper organization. Abby Braman, the newly appointed Pearl Riverkeeper, will work to protect and preserve the Pearl River by combining her firsthand knowledge of the waterway with an unwavering commitment to the rights of the community and to the rule of law.“Waterkeeper Alliance is thrilled to have Abby Braman to be the eyes, ears, and voice for this vital watershed and community,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President of Waterkeeper Alliance. “Every community deserves to have swimmable, drinkable and shable water, and Abby is the right leader to fight for clean water in the region.”The Pearl Riverkeeper will be a full-time advocate for the Pearl River and its tributaries, protecting and restoring water quality through community action and enforcement. Abby Braman stated, “Pearl Riverkeeper’s aim is to provide strong advocacy that will result in an improved quality of life for all citizens whether they rely on it for drinking water or recreation, or whether they simply value the Pearl River's continued well-being.”“Abby will have an incredibly important job,” added Marc Yaggi, Executive Director of Waterkeeper Alliance. “Waterkeepers defend their communities against anyone who threatens their right to clean water, from law-breaking polluters to irresponsible government of officials. Until our public agencies have the means necessary to protect us from polluters, and the will to enforce the law, there will always be a great need for people like Abby to fight for our right to clean water.”The Pearl River originates in Neshoba County, Mississippi, passes by the state capital, Jackson, along the border of Louisiana, eventually draining to the Mississippi Sound. The river is approximately 490 miles in length and drains an area of 8,760 square miles. The Ross Barnett Reservoir, a 33,000 acre impoundment, provides the drinking water supply for much of Mississippi. The Pearl River Basin is rich in ecological resources including over 40 species of mussel and 130 species of native fish. It supports seven federally listed species including the ringed map turtle, Gulf Sturgeon, inflated heelsplitter mussel, Bald Eagle, dusky gopher frog and Louisiana black bear. The Pearl Riverkeeper will advocate for the health of a watershed that is being threatened in numerous ways. One threat to the Pearl River is a proposed “One Lake” project which would require the dredging of an additional 7 miles of the Pearl to widen, deepen and straighten the waterway for commercial development. Additional threats include point-source solution from the various industries located along the river and from the Jackson sewage treatment plant. Farming runoff and high sediment loads caused by construction and the logging industry further impact water quality on the river. Pearl Riverkeeper will work on watershed-related issues from the headwaters of the Pearl River in Nanih Waiya to the Gulf Coast, including the Yockanookany, Strong and Bogue Chitto tributaries.

About Waterkeeper AllianceWaterkeeper Alliance is a global movement uniting over 300 Waterkeeper organizations around the world and focusing citizen advocacy on issues that affect our waterways, from pollution to climate change. Waterkeepers patrol and protect more than 2.4 million square miles of rivers, streams and coastlines in the Americas, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa. www.waterkeeper.org.